Fright
Night 2: New Blood
(2013/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/Horrible
Horror: The Special Edition
(with Zacherley/compilation/Legend DVD set)/House
Of Wax 3D
(1953/Warner Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray 2D)/In
The Flesh
(2013/BBC DVD)/100
Bloody Acres
(2013/Doppleganger DVD)/Secret
Of Crickley Hall
(2012/BBC DVD)/Vampira
& Me
(2012/Cinema Epoch DVD)
3D
Picture: B (on Wax)
2D Picture: B- & C/C/B/C/C+/C/C Sound: B- &
C+/C/B-/C+/C+/C+/C+ Extras: D/C+/B/D/C/D/C+ Main Programs:
D/C+/B-/C/C/C-/B-
The
Horror titles for Halloween are arriving, including a classic and a
few featuring genre legends...
Eduardo
Rodriguez's Fright
Night 2: New Blood
(2013) is a sequel of sorts to the disappointing remake of the 1985
fan favorite (see how many generations we are down already!) taking
place in France (?!?) where a new set of vampires have turned up.
Some of the film in in French, other parts in English and the rest in
hisses and grrrrrs, the latter summarizing how bad the writing and
plotting really is. The Fright Night name is now the name of a lame
reality TV show where the host investigates haunted places (yawn!)
and this whole enterprise is just a mess. Here in boring unrated and
cut versions, it is our big dud here and nothing is memorable or
original.
Extras
include Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes capable devices,
a feature length audio commentary track by Rodriguez and Co-Producers
Alison Rosenzweig & Michael Gaeta, Webisodes of the faux TV show
and Dracula Revealed featurette.
Horrible
Horror: The Special Edition
is an interesting compilation DVD set from Legend featuring the
regional Horror movie show host Zacherley in vintage clips that on
the main disc is 2 hours, 40 minutes of movie trailers, sometimes
with the host inserting himself in them. Some may find that
annoying, save fans of the host, but a few trailers here have not
been on the many other compilations we have covered so it is not bad.
All host footage is vintage analog NTSC color videotape.
A
second DVD has all the extras which include a spoof of The
Blob
(see the Criterion Blu-ray reviewed elsewhere on this site) of the
stop-motion Gumby called The
Glob & Gumby,
1986 prep of the host on set, 1960 Zacherley appearance on the What's
My Line? TV game show, his appearance on a 1951 TV episode of the hit
radio horror drama anthology classic Lights
Out!
and a so-so print of the film Frankenstein's
Daughter
(1958). Not bad.
Andre
de Toth's House
Of Wax 3D
(1953) was one of the big 3D films from the original 3D craze
Hollywood had all too briefly in the early half of the 1950s and
along with Bwana
Devil,
The
Creature From The Black Lagoon,
It
Came From Outer Space
and (hardly issued in the format at the time) Hitchcock's Dial
'M' For Murder
is one of the major premiere releases of the time. Vincent Price was
already an established actor who proved his versatility with all
kinds of roles when this film put him permanently on the Horror map
as a brilliant sculptor who has a few dirty, deadly secrets as he
runs a wax museum that has become very popular, but when dead bodies
start piling up in ways that start to get noticed, business will not
only be booming, but even when it is dead, it will be alive!
A
fun, creepy film that has aged pretty well, but is really even better
in 3D, though it remains a fine gothic genre classic on its own. Far
superior to the recent, unnecessary remake and itself a remake (more
on that in a moment), it's pacing and suspense still work, as well as
the cast and Warner did put the money into this one. Carolyn Jones,
Frank Lovejoy and Phillis Kirk are among the cast that makes this a
real must-see for all serious film fans, Horror and otherwise. It is
easy to forget how good this one is, so see it again if you have not
seen it in a while and if you can see it in 3D, it is an experience
you'll never forget.
Extras
include a Newsreel, feature length audio commentary track by David
Del Valle & Constantine Nasr, Original Theatrical Trailer,
featurette House
Of Wax: Unlike Anything You've Seen Before!
and standard definition copy of the original version of the film, the
two-strip
Technicolor
Michael Curtiz's Mystery
Of The Wax Museum
(1933) with Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, the same year she made the
original King
Kong.
UPDATE: The film has been restored for Blu-ray with missing dialogue
found and a little more footage uncovered and you can read more about
it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12376/Fright+Night+2:+New+Blood+(2013/Fox+Blu-ray+
Johnny
Campbell's In
The Flesh
(2013) is the BBC's attempt to do an intelligent zombie invasion TV
Mini-Series, but it plays it too safe and we see everything that I
being done to death lately (no pun intended), especially this year
and is too retrained to be original or different, so while the pacing
is consistent and not sloppy and unknown actors not bad, but this is
far from justifying its three hours of running time with some overlap
to boot. For the curious only, I was not impressed.
There
are no extras.
Colin
& Cameron Cairnes' 100
Bloody Acres
(2013) is a dark Australian comedy about a pair of sick brothers
using human bodies to naturally fertilize, et al, their organic
farming operation. This gets into zombie territory and is obviously
shades of Motel
Hell
(1980), but without the consistency, ironic distance, originality or
enough of the humor required to pull things off. The lack of
suspense does not help and though the cats is not bad, the
co-directors are as inconsistent as the script. It also does not
work as Oz-ploitation, so don;t expect much in that respect either,
but genre fans might want to see it out of curiosity for what and
what does not work. At least they were somewhat ambitious, but it
just does not work out.
Extras
include an SFX featurette, Morgan Brothers TV commercials, short
films, Storyboard Gallery, Cast/Crew Interviews and a Behind The
Scenes featurette.
Joe
Ahearne's The
Secret Of Crickley Hall
(2012) is another too-safe BBC Horror TV Mini-Series, this time
involving the title haunted house and this one goes on for 175
minutes, yet is even more lost and David Warner even shows up
supporting a cast of mostly unknowns (though Suranne Jones from the
current Doctor
Who
era is also cast) in what is a boring tale (based on a novel by James
Herbert; could it have been better than this?) that is more of a
collections of cliches than anything suspenseful or scary. Too bad
because it is at least a disciplined shoot, but the teleplay needed
much help.
There
are no extras.
Last
but not least is R.H. Greene's new documentary Vampira
& Me
(2012), a remarkable work from the maker/director of the documentary
Schlock!
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) which starts with interview footage
of actress/Vampira creator Maila Nurmi, who created the character all
on her own with the simple intent at first to simply attend a costume
party. Eventually, she landed up the host of her own TV show
introducing B-movies and to the shock of her local TV station where
she produced the show, it became their #1 hit!
From
there, things started to go from great to so good to very problematic
and before she knew it she was cancelled and in poverty. She was
also close to a then-unknown James Dean only to see his star become
greater than hers and then, he died in a horrible car accident, which
did not help her personally. When she was blamed for his death and
accused of being a Satanist who made it happen, she would be vilified
in the press henceforth.
Greene,
who is a major fan and was a real-life fan before her death, used
interviews from his previous film plus all the interview footage he
did not use, added what little footage of her performances in
character survived (including some footage just discovered after her
death) and adding voice-overs from others, audio from tapes Nurmi
intended to use as the basis for an autobiographical book, he manages
to give us one of the great untold stories of a showbiz innovator who
never got her due. This helps to change that.
Of
course, she is also known for her appearance in Ed Wood's infamous
Plan
Nine From Outer Space
in her character, but she sadly never speaks in that one and that was
not all her character was about. The result here is a priceless
document every serious horror fan needs to see and was painstakingly
assembled by someone who loved and respected the woman, someone you
too will respect all the more when you see this key chapter of Horror
history. Hope we see a sequel, but know you can see more of Miss
Nurmi, Vampira, Zacherley and other TV Horror show hosts in the very
compatible American
Scary
documentary reviewed elsewhere on this site, but Vampira
& Me
is one of the best showbiz documentaries of the year.
Extras
include Lobby Cards images, Sam Fullerton's all-audio interview with
Greene on this project and its subject and five video segments: the
2012 Hollywood premiere of this release, interview with the punk rock
band Satan's Cheerleaders who worked with Nurmi on a few songs, Nurmi
remembering the day James Dean died in on-camera interview footage
not in the final documentary, 1955 Magic
In The Air
industrial film short (in black and white) explaining how TV was
developed & works and Restoring
Vampira
short featuring Greene opening up a reel of kinescoped footage of
Nurmi as Vampira making an appearance on The
George Gobel Show
in which she plays the character in great form seen for the first
time in 60 years! Great stuff!
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 MVC-encoded 3-D - Full Resolution digital High
Definition image on Wax
looks good, is fun, has only minor moments where things don't align
like a digital production and has a superior use of the format
throughout. A big hit in its day, 3D 35mm prints were originally
issued in dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor and Warner reissued the film often over the
years, including for special events, 3D festivals and new waves of
3D. They even made 70mm 3D prints at one point, showing the film's
enduring popularity and how great the 3D is and to keep the dual
images from the Natural Vision 3D process in razor sharp focus. The
1080p 1.33 X 1 2D digital High Definition image transfer also looks
solid with fine depth, definition and color that has the best range
ever seen on this film for home video release. The total result is a
classic 3D title looking as good as possible and the vest performer
om the list.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Fright
is a mixed presentation due to stylized shooting, faux HDTV footage
and some general sloppiness throughout, so it is not as good as the
60-year-old Vincent Price film or its predecessors on Blu-ray. The
result also turns out to be generic and the anamorphically enhanced
DVD is among the worst performers on the list along with the 1.33 X 1
compilation of Horrible.
The rest of the DVDs are in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
presentations and all are softer than they should be.
Vampira
is the only one with an excuse since much of the footage is so old
and even degraded, so even millions of dollars would not be able to
fix the footage much. Cheers to the editing too. The exception of
the DVDs is Acres, which has more consistent definition for its
format and budget, making it the third best presentation of all on
this list.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Fright
should easily be the best sonic presentation on the list,
but the recording quality is inconsistent, mix too much in the front
channels and sometimes simply off the mark, with the lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 DVD even more problematic and choppy. As a result, the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix on Wax
can more than compete and using Pro Logic, has more consistent
surrounds by default. The film was
originally designed for 4-track magnetic stereo sound with traveling
dialogue and sound effects, but that original soundmaster seems to be
missing, though 70mm blow-up prints had 6-track magnetic sound, so
who knows what remains in Warner's vaults on the film. The fact is
that the presentation is warm, clean, clear for its age and does not
sound any generations down and that is impressive.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Horrible
is the poorest here as expected with the old audio of all the
trailers, clips and vintage Zacherley footage, but its not a mess.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Acres
and Vampira
are better, but not spectacular, though Acres
is an all new recording and should have sounded better. That leaves
the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Flesh
and Hall
being
passible, but well recorded and mixed for TV productions.
-
Nicholas Sheffo